Food services and several other accounts are showing substantial end-of-year deficits and will prove a challenge to balancing overall expenses, Director of Business and Finance Marc Furtado told the Somerset Berkley Regional School Committee on Thursday night. “I don’t believe any of them a...

Food services and several other accounts are showing substantial end-of-year deficits and will prove a challenge to balancing overall expenses, Director of Business and Finance Marc Furtado told the Somerset Berkley Regional School Committee on Thursday night.

“I don’t believe any of them are not manageable,” Furtado said at the outset outlining the problem areas.

However, the food budget deficit amounts to about $75,000.

That’s as a result of a $40,000 shortfall the first half of the year, $25,000 in the second half and a $10,000 buyout for the food services manager, Furtado reported.

“Are you able to absorb a $75,000 deficit?” Chairman Richard Peirce asked.

“It’s going to be very close,” Furtado answered.

He cited one problem area: labor. Typically they budget 40 to 45 percent of total expenses for employees, but their cost is running closer to 60 percent, he said. The manager’s retirement required additional staffing needs.

When asked about revenues, he said they have actually exceeded projections.

Furtado also said the prior food services director had identified a surplus at the outset of the year “that didn’t exist.”

He explained federal requirements between a school district’s cost of meals and what is charged and that a sizable gap has existed for some time.

To start making up that gap, Furtado said he’d recommend at next week’s meeting increasing the current lunch cost of $2 for elementary and $2.50 for middle and high school lunches, to $2.25 and $2.75, respectively.

That would help close that gap more quickly without small, incremental increases annually, Furtado said during a follow-up interview Friday.

Furtado also said he believes the quality of the school lunches has improved noticeably.

Other sizable deficits Furtado identified included $70,000 for substitute pay, $40,000 for principals’ pay as a result of a leave of absence and replacement cost, $50,000 in custodial salaries and a significant retirement fund deficit that was not readily available.

He listed about 30 accounts with surpluses he planned to use for transfers to offset the deficits.

The School Committee accepted Furtado’s plan to make the transfers to balance the books, subject to the approval of his report by the committee at Thursday night’s meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the high school.

Furtado said he would know whether the district could balance the deficits with surpluses after the last payroll is issued about July 12.